So......where is Enrique?

[simonlemagnifique]

pretty puzled by this:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,,2275211,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=5

Carlos Edwards, who failed to stretch José Enrique, Keegan's weak link of a left-back

 

I reckon enrique's a brilliant player.  Can't understand the rumours about riise when we've got a 21 year old who's better...

[Newcastle Fan]

The media is a joke  tbh, they still rate Smith highley and no matter what he does Enrique is not good enough..i don't think they even watch our games..

[junkhead]

The media is a joke  tbh, they still rate Smith highley and no matter what he does Enrique is not good enough..i don't think they even watch our games..

they don't.. they just go with the flow

[Guest alex]

I think he is actually quite clever attacking but has a little too much confidence in his ability at times. Will get better.

 

Certainly our best left back since..... erm..... well I loved Bernard in his prime for us but he was quite dodgy at times (defending).

 

Enrique isn't the greatest defender in the world either. He's not BAD, by any means, but he's better on the attack.

The opposite is true imo.

[Doug]

He has proved me wrong. I did not rate him at all but it just shows what a run in a side playing with confidence can do. We are seeing his true potential now.

The same can be said of several of the players really since  Birmingham away

[colinmk]

Could we convert him into a ball playing centre half?

 

A CC CH maybe hes not that good in the air and contains his attacker instead of cutting him off i dont think he would be good there. However he is class on the side !!!!

 

A good left back is much rarer than a good centre half. We have no incentive to try to convert him.

 

It would be completely ridiculous to try and convert a natural full back like Enrique into a centre half. These are two completely different positions and I don't understand why people make suggestions like that.

[Disco]

Lookslike a £6m defender now. Playing well with confidence. Like Beye he is very good in one on one defending situations, very rarely gets skinned.

[Keefaz]

Could we convert him into a ball playing centre half?

 

A CC CH maybe hes not that good in the air and contains his attacker instead of cutting him off i dont think he would be good there. However he is class on the side !!!!

 

A good left back is much rarer than a good centre half. We have no incentive to try to convert him.

 

It would be completely ridiculous to try and convert a natural full back like Enrique into a centre half. These are two completely different positions and I don't understand why people make suggestions like that.

 

You should look at who made the suggestion, tbh...

[merlin]

Average, not a KK type full-back.

 

I take it all back, he's impressed me more than anyone of late. I was very wrong to call him average, he has the potential to be very good indeed.

 

It takes a big man to admit when he has been wrong - well done ; I agree with what you say.

[NG32]

I think we have our best full back pairing at SJP for a long long time.

 

Well done to SA for buying, but he deployed them incorrectly.

 

Spot on Keegan for seeing their ture potential.

[Benwell Lad]

pretty puzled by this:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,,2275211,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=5

Carlos Edwards, who failed to stretch José Enrique, Keegan's weak link of a left-back

 

I reckon enrique's a brilliant player.  Can't understand the rumours about riise when we've got a 21 year old who's better...

 

He's no weak link, far from it.

A typically jaundiced piece of sub-standard writing from the bitter macum slappa.

[Guest alex]

I'd be gutted if we signed Riise because he would only come here for 1st team football. Louise Taylor showing how clueless (and bitter) she is as per usual too.

[Guest Knightrider]

I'd be gutted if we signed Riise because he would only come here for 1st team football. Louise Taylor showing how clueless (and bitter) she is as per usual too.

 

He'd make a decent squad player in my opinion but what is the point of signing someone for big/ish money to sit on the bench or a player who isn't as good as Enrique to replace him, as you say Riise won't come here to sit on the bench. If we are to strengthen left-back, sign someone better than Enrique (goes for all positions) or what I'd like to see happen, sign some young potential as cover that won't cost the earth and keep the big money for more important areas further up the pitch.

[Rich]

Enrique was very, very good yesterday, considering he was up against Edwards - one of the few Mackems with any class about them.

 

He starts off loads of attacks with that whipped ball up the line (Griffin used to play the same pass an awful lot, the best part of his game), but obviously he can still only get better. His positioning was good, he was positive, and he rarely (if ever) looked like getting beaten.

 

Very impressed.

[junkhead]

Enrique was very, very good yesterday, considering he was up against Edwards - one of the few Mackems with any class about them.

 

He starts off loads of attacks with that whipped ball up the line (Griffin used to play the same pass an awful lot, the best part of his game), but obviously he can still only get better. His positioning was good, he was positive, and he rarely (if ever) looked like getting beaten.

 

Very impressed.

agree, although Edwards was awful yesterday..

 

what i like most about Jose is that he's not afraid of the responsibility to start an attack.. in most cases that means he's alone against the opposition winger and right back, yet he's still confident enough to take on them and create spaces for through balls etc..

after years of watching Carr, Babayaro and the other jokers afraid to pass a ball forward, it's a rather nice change to have two complete wing backs.

[Guest alex]

I'd be gutted if we signed Riise because he would only come here for 1st team football. Louise Taylor showing how clueless (and bitter) she is as per usual too.

 

He'd make a decent squad player in my opinion but what is the point of signing someone for big/ish money to sit on the bench or a player who isn't as good as Enrique to replace him, as you say Riise won't come here to sit on the bench. If we are to strengthen left-back, sign someone better than Enrique (goes for all positions) or what I'd like to see happen, sign some young potential as cover that won't cost the earth and keep the big money for more important areas further up the pitch.

The point being he'd rather be a squad player at Liverpool than come here to sit on the bench. And who could blame him? I agree I'd have him here as a squad player in an ideal world though.

[Baggio]

I think Edwards is struggling to make the step up to the Premiership tbh.

[Rich]

I think Edwards is struggling to make the step up to the Premiership tbh.

 

I don't think he's fit, personally, and hasn't been all season. He's only played about a dozen games.

[STM]

What pleases me is that i can see the support Enrique gets at the match.

 

Yesterday most the fans around me were raving about him. For me, he looked one of the most confident players on the pitch. Unlike alot of our previous defenders, i never worry when he is on the ball, i always feel as if he will do something useful with it. As well as that, he seems to have a good awareness of the players around him. The amount of times he didn't even need to look up to find a team mate was wonderful. Sometimes positionally he can be found wanting but because he has the pace and the strength, he makes up for it.

 

In terms of attacking, people are being far too narrow minded. The guys spanish, therefore his view on attacking football isn't bombing up and down the flank like Beye does but trying to pick a pass. Normally his aim is either a ball over the top for Martins or one into the feet of Viduka. His attacking is good but it's also different. It's because of this style of attacking that makes him a good defender because he wont get caught tracking back, he will always be in his zone most of the game.

 

In short Enrique is a very good defender but i'm not sure if he's a keegan defender. I can gaurentee KK would prefer a Beye on the left.

[Tooj]

The old bloke who sits on the left of me always calls him En Rico. 

[TRon]

I loved the way he held off that Mackem player while controlling the ball at leisure yesterday. The twat couldn't get near the ball 

[Cajun]

I think Edwards is overrated after a few good international performances.

[gazza ladra]

The Guardian comment about Enrique being a weak link irked me as well.

 

It was Louise Taylor (or Marina Hyde?) who made a comment back when N'Zogbia was starting -- about Enrique being a bust. It's an idée fixe and she (they) hasn't really bothered watching him play. Just mouthing received wisdom.

 

At one point last week Enrique made a brilliant play where he sort of flicked the ball  to himself over a defender -- and the commentator remarked that he had lost the ball and recovered. To me it was manifestly obvious that Enrique knew exactly what he was doing and did it quite deftly. I guess left backs aren't supposed to know how to dribble.

[Unlucky Luque]

The Guardian comment about Enrique being a weak link irked me as well.

 

It was Louise Taylor (or Marina Hyde?) who made a comment back when N'Zogbia was starting -- about Enrique being a bust. It's an idée fixe and she (they) hasn't really bothered watching him play. Just mouthing received wisdom.

 

At one point last week Enrique made a brilliant play where he sort of flicked the ball  to himself over a defender -- and the commentator remarked that he had lost the ball and recovered. To me it was manifestly obvious that Enrique knew exactly what he was doing and did it quite deftly. I guess left backs aren't supposed to know how to dribble.

 

Saw that too, was class like. Shame our left back is the only one with flair

[Wullie]

Taylor's been peddling the "Enrique is shit" line all season like many hacks who write their report based on what they expect and what they want rather than what they see. It's worse from her because she has an extra axe to grind, especially after her brave boys were humiliated again yesterday.